We had 2 channels, that's BBC and ITV, and it all closed down well before midnight.
Black and white, on a heavy woodgrain-effect TV with two big round Bakelite dials on top for tuning and volume. If the picture looked grainy your Dad would thump the set either on top or the side, in a special spot which he swore always put it right.

The best way to enjoy football was to adjust the 'hold' so that the players' bodies rippled hilariously sideways and their legs looked ten feet long as they kicked the ball. Hours of fun.

Only one TV per household - few people owned one as they were so unreliable, so most rented one instead. When a large TV rental shop in my home town announced that it was giving away reparable broken TV sets, people queued up from all over the area and wheeled them away on bicycles, wheelbarrows and prams. Some even turned up in twos and manually carried them away together! The local paper was full of it.

All this just for two fuzzy channels!

TV could be exciting though. I watched the first appearance of the Daleks, and yes, I did hide behind the sofa. They were terrifying. I can't imagine anything so frightening these days.
(Juan Quar is clinging to her front teeth on, Mon 2 Sep 2013, 13:42, 1 reply)

So, what did you do during the war?

( monster munch person, man, woman... camera... TV?, Mon 2 Sep 2013, 13:46, closed)

i 'ad me leg blown off.
It were a tax dodge.
(Juan Quar is clinging to her front teeth on, Mon 2 Sep 2013, 13:59, closed)

Umm, benefit fraud.
I'm telling George Osbourne on you.
( monster munch person, man, woman... camera... TV?, Mon 2 Sep 2013, 14:04, closed)

He had BOTH his off.
Or he will soon.
(Juan Quar is clinging to her front teeth on, Mon 2 Sep 2013, 14:38, closed)